Schedule F (Form 990) is used by an organization that files Form 990 to provide information on its activities conducted outside the United States by the organization at any time during the tax year.

Activities conducted outside the United States include grants and other assistance, program-related investments, fundraising activities, unrelated trade or business, program services, investments, or maintaining offices, employees, or agents for the purpose of conducting any such activities in regions outside the United States.

United States is defined as the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the United States Virgin Islands. A “foreign country” is any sovereignty that is not the United States.

Information is to be reported based on the geographic regions described below. Report activities conducted by the organization directly or indirectly through a disregarded entity, or through a joint venture treated as a partnership.

For purposes of Schedule F (Form 990), grants and other assistance includes awards, prizes, contributions, noncash assistance, cash allocations, stipends, scholarships, fellowships, research grants, and similar payments and distributions made by the organization during the tax year to or for the use of foreign organizations, foreign governments, foreign individuals, and U.S. individuals or entities for foreign activity. It does not include salaries or other compensation to employees or payments to independent contractors; the payment of any benefit by a section 501(c)(9) voluntary employees' beneficiary association (VEBA) to employees of a sponsoring organization or contributing employer, if such payment is made under the terms of the VEBA trust and in compliance with section 505; or payments or other assistance to affiliates or branch offices that are not organized as legal entities separate from the filing organization.

“Program services” are activities conducted by the organization outside the United States that form the basis of the organization's exemption from federal income tax. Examples of program services include, but are not limited to, operating an orphanage, school, hospital, church, temple, mosque, or synagogue; disaster relief efforts; and providing indigent relief.

See Glossary in the Instructions for Form 990 for the definition of the following terms.

Parts II and III of Schedule F (Form 990), and the Part I, line 3 table of Schedule F, may be duplicated to list additional activities per region (Part I), grants and other assistance to organizations outside the United States (Part II), or grants and other assistance to individuals outside the United States (Part III) that do not fit on the first page of these parts. Number each page of each part.

An organization that answered “Yes” to Form 990, Part IV, Checklist of Required Schedules, lines 14b, 15, or 16, must complete the appropriate parts of Schedule F (Form 990) and attach Schedule F (Form 990) to Form 990.

If an organization is not required to file Form 990 but chooses to do so, it must file a complete return and provide all of the information requested, including the required schedules.

Reporting on Schedule F (Form 990) is based on the following geographic regions.

If an organization's activities involve a country not listed earlier, designate the appropriate region for the country.